Supreme Court Rules Daily-Wage Workers Cannot Lose Increment After Regularisation

The Supreme Court has held that skilled workers initially engaged as daily wagers cannot be denied an annual increment after being regularised as permanent employees with regular pay scales and retirement benefits.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva set aside a Gujarat High Court judgment, rejecting the state's argument that retired employees were ineligible for the increment due to their original daily-wage status. The court relied on Gujarat's 1988 government resolution, which converted daily-wage skilled workers completing 10 years of service into permanent employees with full benefits including pension.

The ruling clarifies that once workers are brought into a regular employment framework with corresponding service benefits, their earlier status cannot be used to deny those entitlements. The dispute involved irrigation department employees who worked over 30 years and retired in different years, with the increment becoming due on July 1, a day after retirement.